Louth engineers reveal the magic behind Guy Martin’s Wall of Death

The team that built the ‘Wall of Death’ in Manby have spoken of their amazing experience after daredevil motorcyclist Guy Martin smashed the world record last week.

CawMc Engineering, which is based in Scupholme near South Somercotes, had to keep the huge project shrouded in secrecy for months, after being offered the opportunity to build the Wall of Death for the record-breaking attempt last Monday (March 28).

As reported in last week’s paper, Guy Martin - who lives just a few miles down the road in Kirmington, near Caistor - smashed the world record in front of millions of Channel Four TV viewers in a disused aircraft hanger in Manby.

Martin’s death-defying ride led to him beating the previous record of 60 mph while riding around the vertical wall.

He achieved that on his first attempt, reaching a top speed of 78.15 mph while battling against G-force of 6.69 - the equivalent of a jet fighter pilot .

The challenge itself, of course, would not have been possible were it not for the 12 month project conducted by CawMc Engineering, who welded 50 shipping containers together to create the large circular arena which was 40 metres in diameter.

Adam Hughes, the lead engineering co-ordinator at CawMc Engineering and the Project Manager for the Wall of Death, told the Leader how it all came about.

Adam said: “We got a phone call from North One Television [who produced the show for Channel Four] in March 2015, who were calling around local companies, and we jumped at the opportunity.

“We started building it in August 2015, although there was a bit of a delay when Guy had his accident.

“There was a team of 10 of us working on the Wall of Death, and it was a great relief when the final shipping container was welded on. The floor wasn’t level so some of it had to be laser levelled.”

Adam described working with Guy - and seeing the Wall of Death used to break a world record - as an “exciting and unusual” experience.

He added: “The process of working on this project was a nice change of pace, and we would do it again.

“The atmosphere on the night was great, and it was good to see what we had built in action.

“The TV people thanked us, and Guy was impressed and happy with the Wall of Death.